Train Your Mind

Late-lee I’ve been thinking about how powerful our thoughts are—and how often we train our minds without even realizing it.

I heard someone say, “If you ask your mind a negative question, you’ll get a negative answer.” And I’ve seen that play out in leadership, in coaching, and honestly, in my own life.

Think about something most of us have wrestled with at some point: trying to lose weight or get healthier. You start eating better, moving more, and yet the question that pops into your head is, “Why is this so hard?” And just like that, your brain starts building a list: You’re tired. Your schedule’s packed. Your knees ache. The scale’s not moving.

But ask a different question—“What is my body letting me do today that it couldn’t do last week?”—and everything changes. You notice your stamina, your strength, your progress. Same situation, but a completely different mindset.

It’s no different in leadership. I’ve worked with school leaders who walk into every room scanning for what’s wrong. They’re laser-focused on what needs fixing—and because of that, they miss what’s improving. They overlook the teacher who finally tried something new, or the student who stayed focused for a full 20 minutes for the first time all year.

When you train your mind to only see what’s broken, you miss what’s blooming. That doesn’t mean we ignore gaps.  Good leaders face them head-on. We know there are areas we must improve. Get a solid plan and address them. But great leaders also train their minds to ask better questions:

Instead of, “Why aren’t they getting this?” try, “Where are they starting to grow?”

Instead of, “What’s wrong with this lesson?” ask, “What worked, and how can we build on it?”

Your mind listens to your questions. Your leadership reflects your focus. And your team feels both.

So today, I challenge you to ask better questions—of yourself and of others.

See what’s working. Catch someone doing it right. Say it out loud.

Because what you look for, you’ll find.

And what you find is what you’ll multiply.